The day after a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court struck down the appointment of Bhavani Singh as the Special Public prosecutor (SPP) in the disproportionate assets case against AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa, the Karnataka Government on Tuesday appointed senior counsel and former State Advocate General BV Acharya as the SPP in Jaya’s case.
The Karnataka Government issued a notification in this regard after the Supreme Court declared that the Tamil Nadu Government had no right to appoint the SPP in the case since transfer of the case to Karnataka. Acharya had resigned in 2012 citing pressure from the interested persons and other quarters. The apex court had also declared as unauthorised the Tamil Nadu’s action of appointing G Bhavani Singh as SPP and had asked the State of Karnataka to file written statement in the appeals filed by Jayalalithaa before the High Court questioning her conviction in the case. The Supreme Court had also asked the High Court to ignore the statement filed by Singh.
Senior counsel BV Acharya was the first SPP in the high profile J Jayalalithaa case after the case was transferred from Tamil Nadu to Karnataka. Acharya argued the matter before the trial court for almost seven years before he decided to step down. This paved the way for the appointment of Bhavani Singh as the SPP in the case. The Special Court finally delivered its verdict in which Jayalalithaa was sentenced to four years in prison and fined Rs 100 crore.
In September 2014, Jayalalithaa, her aide Sasikala and two of her relatives had been sentenced to four years in jail by a Special Court in a corruption case that dragged on for 18 years. In October, the Supreme Court had granted conditional bail to Jayalalithaa. The 81-year-old Acharya had decided to step down as the SPP from the case citing pressure from some quarters which he also wrote about in his book. The appointment of Bhavani Singh was challenged by DMK leader K Anbazhagan on the grounds that the accused was in collusion with the SPP.
The Karnataka HC had rejected the plea after which the DMK general secretary challenged in the Supreme Court. Former Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa argued that Anbazhagan’s plea was not ‘genuine’. In a jolt to Jayalalithaa, the SC had dismissed her plea and set aside Bhavani Singh’s appointment as the SPP. Meanwhile as per the directions of the apex court, newly appointed SPP BV Acharya on behalf of Karnataka made a written submission to the High Court on Monday in the case. He said in his submission, the Government of Karnataka was the prosecuting agency after the transfer of the trial by the SC and for the mere reason, the prosecuting agency has not added as a party in the criminal appeal itself warrants dismissal of the criminal appeal in line.
He submitted that the verdict delivered in this case by the Special Court was appropriate and fit. He said, “It is respectfully submitted that the decision recorded by the learned special judge does not suffer from any infirmity and there are no grounds made out for interference by the hounourable court.” “It is therefore prayed that this honourable court may be pleased to dismiss all four appeals both on the ground of maintainability as also on merits,” he further submits.